I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

I have been a UVerse customer for 2 years now. I pay good money for the highest cable package level with all the trimmings. When I orginally moved to my current home there was an issue where I was going to go with comcast because uverse could not install my internet and other services for 2 weeks. I explained to them how this was a big issue for me because i am a remote employee who works from my home and they went above and beyond to obtain me as a customer by finding someone to install my services on the day I moved in. Over the course of the 2 years having the services i find then unparalell. Comcast cannot even come close.

Here is my issue and major disapointment with ATT Uverse. I am moving again on September 7th. So I contacted ATT early last week to set up the move thinking just under 2 weeks should be enough lead time for any large cable provider to accomodate an installation of services for a faithful customer who is trying hard to continue being a customer. However, this time that has not been the case. They have not made any effort to accomodate my need for my services to be restored. my job depends on me having my services restored the first day of my move. I attempted to resolve the issue on my on by moving my move in date to be the date of the install but was unable to work this out. I had asked for a supervisor to call be to explain the issue to them but they never called so I cancelled the request for a manager when I thought it was resolved of my own doing. I also have spoken to the office of the rep who administers the accounts in my apartment complex and they told me they have no access to the system for install scheduling. I emailed a customer service email and got no response. As a contingency I have scehduled an installation with Brighthouse cable to get service on the first day even though I really have no desire to switch to them. If Uverse doesnt resolve this i will be forced to switch. Its really disappointing to me that they are willing to roll out the red carpet and put on a dog and pony show to get me as a customer but now that they already have me they couldnt care less if I stay or go because they have already gotten what they need from me. Really disoppointing that I will have to move to a service I dont really want all because Uverse doesn't care about me as a customer. I understand there are limitations to any business but If you are a large company you REALLY want me to believe you need a months turn around to install services that comast is able to turn on remotely if you have the equipment and infastructure is already there. I am pretty sure I will get no response to this but it was worth a try. Oh well, I guess such is corporate America

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

Hello, lynnmark2007! Thanks for posting!

I'm sorry to hear that you're having difficulties with your U-verse installation date. We can get you in touch with our team of managers, and they will do everything they can to help you out. Just send a private message to ATTCustomerCare by clicking here. Be sure to provide your name, phone number, email address, and the best time to reach you. It might be a good idea to include an alternate phone number, just in case. Please keep in mind that it may take up to two business days to receive a reply, and there simply may not be an earlier installation date available. However, this team is awesome and will work very hard to get your installation date moved.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to send me a private message!

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

Thanks, Mariana. I appreciate your response. I hope they can help me. I hope they can atleast turn my internet on remotely or something. I can live without tv for a week I just need internet so that I can work. If they can't move the date or turn on the internet I will have to switch providers which will suck for me. Thanks a lot for this information.

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

I well, I've talking to 5 people who were very nice, No bad reflection on the people I spoke to is intended by the comments I am about to make. not once did any manager call me direct or did give the employees that spoke to me any solution for me. so I can now draw the conclusion that ATT Uverse is more interested in gaining huge numbers of new customers but could care less about the existing ones. I was going out of my way to continue to be a customer but UVerse put up no effort to do the same. I would have settled for at least my internet being turned on the first day or something. I was even told that if I cancelled and opened a new account at my new address they would most likely be able to accomodate my move in date. Which made no sense whatsoever. So I will say that I love your products more than any other providers and wanted desparately to continue to use and pay for those services, but this obviously was not important to you. I scheduled a move on the 27th. If you can't provide an install in a 10 day turnaround and require almost 20 days than in my opinion you have a serious issue you need to look into. I think 10 days is a reasonable time frame for me to expect you to be able to provide installation of my services. I called Comcast, Brighthouse and Direct TV yesterday just to see what they would say. They all said they could provide me with a saturday install with a 3 day turn around. So as of Saturday I will now ever so reluctantly be a Brighthouse Cable subsciber. If you would like to who the sales and marketing person was that sold me on Brighthouse, their name is ATT UVERSE. Very disoppointed. For someone to pay you $250 a month for 2 years and have you not care to keep them it begs the question do you truly care about any of your customers? For the record I am not complaining to get something free, i dont want discounts and debit cards. I just wanted my services turned on in a reasonable time. I work from home and would have settled for just my internet. instead I kind of just recieved an "i dont know what to tell you" vibe. Your commercials about moving services that make it sound as if its going to be so simple should let tell the truth that while you can move the equipment, your services may not be reconnected in the near future.

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

Am sorry to hear of your experiences, for most of the lthis year, installs new or existing have been about 3 weeks, compared to late 2011 this time frame was close to six weeks, so improvements have been made.Depending on market location, number of techs available, day of week,(Monday-Saturday) all having contributing factors.Newer markets or expanding markets will normally see longer wait times.A constant hiring and training in most markets now have more techs available but increasingly workload has yet to reduce time frame.It takes an installation appointment to perform work at crossbox, serving terminal, drop, nid, inside wiring for just internet install or bundle services, the size of the install determines number of hours allocated, but still need the apointment window to be available.Appointments (both install and repairs) are based on number of techs assigned to work each day, when that quota is reached the system starts filling the next day.Most individuals if moving generally have knowledge of move and when moving 30-60 DAYS in advance (apartments), this is the time should be scheduling move order.Recognize that some may not be able to (selling house, fast close and move) but do expect a company to bump someone out of their appointment who followed expectation, for an existing customer is in my view providing poor service.Attempts were made on your behave to move your install date up and not successful, for that I do feel bad, but the contacts and attempts made do exhibit an effort to accommodate.Perhaps a temporary install with another company and completion of your stated desired uverse services as a later date is a comprise that may or may not be acceptable.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.

*I am an AT&T employee, and the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent AT&T's position, strategies or opinions.

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree giving ATT more lead time would have been better but it unfortunately not possible. I would think even you, despite knowing the inner workings of ATT would expect that a large company would have the ablity to find a way to get your service installed in a 10 day time frame. Especially when its an apartment and the bulk of the infastructure is already in place. However, it is not true that most people know 30 to 60 days before you are planning to move. That is really a relative situation that is it not so easy to apply an arbitrary stat to.

Also, If you company recommends you to schedule moves 30-60 days prior, ATT should make is known in the commercials where you make the move process sound so easy, or somewhere prominate on the att.com\move site. It was not to my knowledge. If I missed this recommendation, which is totally possible, please point out my oversight. Lastly, I said nothing about your company bumping another clients appointment to perform my installation. I would think ATT would have some sort of process in place at the off change someone has a scenario such as I do. I would never want you to take away someone else's installation to accomodate me but I can guarantee the install guy with be in my complex saturday with enough time to squeeze in one more reactivation. I understand your guys may be streched thin. I am glad to hear It is something your company is working on and that the time frame has been shortened. There was effort made on my behave which i do appreciate but however to say that ATT "Went the extra mile" or "exhausted every option"would be disingenuous to say the least. I've seen what companies who intend to keep a customer do and this was not it. Again, I appreaciate the efforts that were given.

I attempted the temporary install route with another company but unfortunately the providers in my area all require contracts that prevent me from using that option. Thanks for your thoughts

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

Ok I have to say. Spoke with someone else and while they werent able to get me what I need I do now feel comfortable that Uverse went to extra mile to try and find a solution. I have to go with another provider but at least you guys tried. thats all I wanted. Thanks

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

Kudos on your ability to be so lenient and forgiving of such a broken infrastructure. I haven't had to call AT&T for tech support until now, and I don't plan on letting them get away with such poor service quality. This is an obvious, at least to me, fix that they can easily implement at their call centers. Their structure is so broken that their efficiency is reduced.

I always chat with the techs that come to my home to find out as much as I can about their process and they all seem hampered by the structure. I already knew what the solution should have been, but I understand that they have to follow their scirpts so I help them along in order to expedite their ability to escalate the ticket, but when their system is so srewed up that the techs themselves tell me they can't do anything until certain procedures are followed even after the 4th tech is sent to my home, it's broken. They can't seem to escalate the issue based on the prior tech visits. This needs to be fixed. They wasted my time for a month and they've already tried to placate me with a month of free service. They should pay me for my hours wasted in diagnosing the issue for them.

AT&T has wasted my time and the time of 4 techs and numerous hours of call center time to "resolve" my issue. I had to ask for complaints on their phone menu to get a manager to finally escalate my ticket when they messed up my appointment and sent a 5th tech. This is just wrong. This forum is a symptom of what's really wrong with AT&T.

Ok I have to say. Spoke with someone else and while they werent able to get me what I need I do now feel comfortable that Uverse went to extra mile to try and find a solution. I have to go with another provider but at least you guys tried. thats all I wanted. Thanks

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

I hear you, willchen. To be honest I pretty much gave up and decided to be nice about it because I was gettting the air that they told I was being unreasonable to want the service on the day I want it if I call a company 10 days ahead of time. I thought that was reasonable, they did not so I switched to a new service provider who was willing to accomodate. I am calling today to cancel my uverse service. It is by far the least concerned I have ever seen a company be about losing someone. at the same time, i understand the people I spoke with had severe limitations based on, as you stated, a broken infrastructure put in place by millionaires who don't understand how the world works. So I refuse to say anything unkind about those people who did the best they could with what they are allowed. I was hitting a brick wall so I figured I would be nice and brush the wall off and walk away.

Re: I guess ATT UVerse doesnt care about retaining me as a customer

once again I have to be fair. If I am going to complain about bad things I have to say something when they do the right thing. I installed brighthouse serivces in my house this weekend and spoke to the UVERSE cancellation department this morning. Someone named Heather took my call and was genuinely concerned with the issue that I was having. She worked hard to make the issue right and show me that it actually mattered to them if i continued to be a customer or not. so my services are getting installed tomorrow instead of next friday and i was given an account credit that makes up for the cost I incurred for having to get another service temporarily. while it was a lot more messy than i wanted it to be you guys made it right and using Brighthouse's dvr for one day just lets me know your services and unparalel. So I am happy now. Thanks to Heather in Cancellations. She should be commended for how much she cares about your customers.